Place:


Litlington  Cambridgeshire

 

In 1870-72, John Marius Wilson's Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales described Litlington like this:

LITTLINGTON, a village and a parish in the district of Royston and county of Cambridge. The village stands 3 miles N of Icknield-street at the boundary with Herts, 3 S of the Roman-road to Cambridge, 3 NE of Ashwell r. station, and 3¼ NW of Royston; and has a post office under Royston.—The parish comprises 2,098 acres. ...


Real property, £3,694. Pop. in 1851,790; in 1861,693. Houses, 152. The decrease of pop. arose from emigration. The property is divided among a few. The manor of Huntingfield belongs to G. E. Foster, Esq.; and that of Dovesdales, to Mrs. G. F. Pigott. Limloe hill is a remarkable barrow on hills within the parish; and a Roman station is supposed to have been in the near vicinity. Upwards of 200 sepulchral urns, and other funereal vessels, were found, in 1821, by the side of the Roman road, at a short distance from Limloe hill. The most remarkable of these are preserved in the Fitzwilliam museum, Cambridge; and they form the most numerous and perfect collection of their kind that has ever been discovered in Britain. The spot where they were found had, from time immemorial, been called ' ' Heaven's Walls, ''and is said to have been regarded with a degree of superstitions dread. It was a rectangular space of 114 feet by 84, enclosed by old walls, which had given rise to its name; and it proved to be a fine example of a Roman cemetery, for burning and burying the dead. At the SE and SW corners were two heaps of wood ashes, as much as would have loaded five carts; and were undoubtedly the remains of funeral piles. The living is a vicarage in the diocese of Ely. Value, £141. Patron, Clare College, Cambridge. The church is early English, in good condition; consists of nave, aisles, and chancel, with porch and tower; and contains an old gravestone, with Norman-French inscription, to the memory of Robert de St. Alban. There are a recently erected Independent chapel, a Primitive Methodist chapel, a national school of 1865, and charities £17.

Litlington through time

Litlington is now part of South Cambridgeshire district. Click here for graphs and data of how South Cambridgeshire has changed over two centuries. For statistics about Litlington itself, go to Units and Statistics.

How to reference this page:

GB Historical GIS / University of Portsmouth, History of Litlington in South Cambridgeshire | Map and description, A Vision of Britain through Time.

URL: https://www.visionofbritain.org.uk/place/3814

Date accessed: 29th March 2024


Not where you were looking for?

Click here for more detailed advice on finding places within A Vision of Britain through Time, and maybe some references to other places called "Litlington".